Nestle denied FDA access to certain records

FDA investigators were denied access to Nestle complaint logs, pest-control records and other records from 2004-2007, the AP reported. An FDA spokeswoman said companies are allow to decide what they will permit during an inspection.

Inspection reports from a Nestlé USA cookie dough factory released yesterday show the company declined several times in the past five years to provide Food and Drug Administration inspectors with complaint logs, pest-control records and other information.

The records, which date to 2004, were made public after Nestlé's Toll House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough was discovered to be the likely culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to the latest estimates from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC and the FDA are investigating the outbreak.

According to the reports released by the FDA, the company declined to allow agency investigators access to certain documents in at least 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

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Navy decides to close inspection reports

Inspection reports on the Navy's ships, aircraft carriers and submarines are now classified information, the Navy Times reported. The reason for the change is not yet known.

The Navy has classified regular reports about the material condition of its fleet, an about-face from when the reports were accessible as public documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

The reports, filed by the Board of Inspection and Survey, or InSurv, contain the findings of meticulous, days-long inspections that cover every detail of the workings of surface ships, aircraft carriers and submarines.

In December, InSurv president Rear Adm. Raymond Klein decided the reports were to be classified, said Linda Alvers, the FOIA coordinator for Fleet Forces Command. She said she did not know why. Also unclear was whether the classification order applied only to InSurvs performed after December, or whether it included reports from before then.

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FOI at Work: School cafeterias not meeting inspection requirements

School cafeterias are required to obtain two annual inspections or risk losing funding from the National School Lunch Program. But only 12 states are reporting 90 percent or more of their schools in compliance, according to the Agriculture Department.

Nearly two-thirds of schools in New York state are not receiving the twice-yearly health inspections required by federal law to curb food poisoning, making the state among the nation's worst offenders.

Compliance is even lower in Monroe County, where almost eight in 10 schools were not inspected twice in the 2006-07 school year, the most recent on record at the state Education Department. One in four were not inspected at all.

Meanwhile, inspection reports reviewed by the Democrat and Chronicle showed that one in five public school cafeterias in Monroe County failed to meet health standards in the last two years.

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The Safety of Our Bridges: None of Our Business, Apparently...

Under the "the less you know, the safer you surely must feel" category comes this one:

Nearly a year after the pavement gave way, sending her Volvo plunging toward the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Interstate 35W bridge collapse survivor Sara Miller is convinced full bridge inspection reports should be made public.

Bridge ratings are available from states and the federal government, but in many states, the detailed inspection reports are off-limits over terrorism concerns.

The reports "should absolutely be public," said Miller, 32, of St. Paul, who climbed out of her car and escaped serious injury.

Michael Keegan, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, says it's up to states to follow their own laws but "we definitely provide guidance to the local governments to be aware and vigilant" for people who "might be developing some type of plan to attack the bridge."

Policies vary from one state to the next, and how much information they release about bridges "is different across the board," said Kelley Rehm with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

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